The sharp rise in the number of Ealing people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance will come as little surprise to anyone who has been watching the steady trickle of recent redundancy announcements.

Employers of all types are facing a tough time staying afloat - but while some lay-offs may be inevitable, shedding staff should always be seen as a genuine last resort.

Dickens Yard and the Arcadia Centre will no doubt present job opportunities to hundreds of people once they are up and running. But those developments will take many years to complete, and in the meantime we all need to do as much as we can to prevent more families from facing financial hardship with little prospect of new work.

Mumbai lessons

THE experience of the Southall charity workers caught up in events in Mumbai brings home the true horror of the terror attacks.

Many among Ealing's large Asian community have been directly affected by the atrocities, and the Gazette joins our local leaders in extending our condolences to all the families of those who lost their lives.

Questions are being asked about whether intelligence warnings might have helped to prevent the terrorists from succeeding, but one thing is certain - attacks on such a remorseless scale are difficult to comprehend and impossible to defend against.